The song ended

"How come so many aristocratic families came to rescue us? Did you arrange all of them?"

Upon hearing Cui Xingzhi's name, Sui Zhixu glanced at him indifferently and ignored him. The academy disciples had already been protected by their respective families. Sui Zhixu's trip not only brought the Cui family's guards but also incited the military forces of other aristocratic families.

"You're borrowing soldiers from the Cui family, and now I can't even say anything?"

Sui Zhixu scoffed, "Do you expect me to leave you hanging in the tree forever?"

Cui Xingzhi shut his mouth and glanced at her.

After a moment of silence, he walked up to her again and asked, "What's your relationship with Xi Yushao? That madman surrounded the entire academy for you, not even afraid of my Cui family of Boling! He even dared to starve me! I've been starving for days!"

"You seem quite energetic."

"..." Cui Xingzhi was speechless again. "Can't you speak properly? With a mouth like that, how come they're all so deeply in love with you?"

Sui Zhixu remained indifferent and ignored him.

"The young master of the Cui family has also arrived. You should think this through."

"Alright, alright." He waved his hand, muttering to himself, "Why is that ancestor here? If she comes, I'm bound to have a bad time. What a nuisance."

Where is Xi Yushao?

"kitchen."

"The kitchen? What's he doing there?"

"Don't you believe me? I woke up from the tree because they were making noise. I was hanging so high up in the tree, I saw him go to the kitchen with my own eyes." Cui Xingzhi patted his chest.

"Young Master Cui."

"What! Cui Zhuyu? Where is she?" Cui Xingzhi shrank back in fright when he heard her name, craning his neck and looking around.

With a swift movement, he quickly moved away from him.

Only then did Cui Xingzhi realize he had been tricked, and he shouted to the sky, "Sui Zhixu, you liar! How dare you lie to me!"

"Who lied to Uncle Thirteen?"

As her name suggests, when she spoke, her voice was like pearls soaked in a clear spring, carrying a natural gentleness and kindness. But Cui Xingzhi knew that it was all fake, all an act.

"Hahahaha!" He scratched his head, laughed loudly, and turned around as if nothing had happened. "Look at what you're saying, who could lie to your Uncle Thirteen? You little lady really don't know how to talk."

“Grandfather has been looking for you for a long time. Uncle Thirteen, you should not be too playful, lest you worry your grandfather. In recent years, his headaches have flared up, and he has been recuperating at the estate, but it is also to better take care of Uncle Thirteen. Uncle Thirteen, you should be more understanding.”

"Oh dear, alright, alright, alright, stop talking. Okay, I know, I'll go with you now, stop, stop." Cui Xingzhi glared fiercely in the direction of the kitchen, having abandoned him halfway there.

Utterly hateful.

He had kindly told her the direction of Xi Yushao, but heaven knows the terror he felt when he first woke up to find himself hanging from a tree. The fact that he didn't make a sound and instead remembered the direction Xi Yushao had escaped was such a noble thing.

He's absolutely amazing.

Only someone like him can become the future overlord of the martial arts world.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Cui Zhuyu was startled and almost twisted her ankle, but luckily she managed to grab the lamp stand next to her in time.

"Could it be that Uncle Thirteen has been drugged with some unknown substance?"

"Stop telling me I'm sick." Cui Xingzhi put his hands on his hips. "That's going too far."

"Anu!" Old Master Cui urged the people behind him to hurry up.

"Father?" Cui Xingzhi walked up to him. "Tell me, why did you come here? What could possibly be wrong with me?"

Grandpa Cui angrily pounded the armrest, "How can I not care about you?"

Cui Xingzhi rubbed his nose. "Speaking of which, old man, how did you get tricked by Sui Zhixu? No, I mean, how did you all get here?"

"Let me do it," Cui Zhuyu said, taking over from the person pushing the wheelchair and feeding the old man Cui some medicine.

"The young master and his men will visit you and explain your situation. Your grandfather is extremely anxious and will naturally come to see you in a hurry."

"That's not right, is it? How could the old man..."

Cui Xingzhi met Cui Zhuyu's ambiguous smile and shut his mouth.

"Okay, that's pretty impressive."

Cui Zhuyu smiled but remained silent, knowing that conflicts of interest were inevitable. It was nothing more than coercion and enticement. Faced with the mysterious serpent and tangible benefits, the powerful families would naturally choose. Although the process was not pleasant, once the benefits were in her hands, she naturally wouldn't stand in the way. She was merely providing a fig leaf to make things look better for everyone.

As she carried her sword, she walked step by step toward the kitchen, sensing the atmosphere emanating from it.

The tip of the sword scraped across the ground, making a harsh, screeching sound.

Xi Yushao leaned against the stove, clutching the wound on her chest. The moment she opened the door, she burst into unrestrained laughter.

"So you still came." His gaze fixed on the sword in Sui Zhixu's hand, and he laughed, "You've come to kill me."

"Huh?" Sui Zhixu took a deep breath, recalling everything in the mountain village, and she wished she could immediately tear the person in front of her into eight pieces.

“Killing you would be too lenient.” Sui Zhixu grabbed his collar, his intense hatred almost overwhelming him.

"You hate me?" Xi Yushao's eyes flashed for a moment, then disappeared again.

"Hate can turn into love; have you ever truly wanted to stay by my side for even a moment?"

His gaze was expectant as he looked directly into those peach blossom eyes.

But there was nothing there.

"Love? How dare you mention that word to me?"

"Why? We met first, so your joys and sorrows, your emotions, should all be for me! They should all originate from me and belong solely to me."

"The world is vast. If you love Fan Zirong's appearance, my looks are no less than his. If you admire Puyang Kai's talent, I am no less than his. As for family background, although the Chu family of Jiannan is a noble family, as long as the Xi family is in my hands, he can be at your beck and call. There are countless men in the world, but I alone cannot catch your eye. Why is that?"

Why?

He then threw him to the ground, stood up, and looked down at his miserable state.

He was wounded in the chest, his breathing was obstructed, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have disappeared during the great calamity in Jingzhou.

If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have lost her martial arts skills and become a cripple, nor would she have had to face the departure of her father and mother one by one.

"I also want to ask why?"

Why could she hear the sorrow and hope of the people of Jingzhou day and night?

In the dead of night, she could even see her mother. She didn't blame her; she just stood in a place she could never reach, always just an arm's length away. The sorrow, disappointment, grief, and reluctance in her eyes surged like a vast ocean, almost suffocating her.

In the end, she and Aye must have disappeared, leaving her without even a word.

As Xu Yijian plunged his sword into his abdomen, he said, “If it weren’t for you, why would I be so grief-stricken? You are not worthy to be compared to Zirong. He respects and cherishes me, and always puts me first. He would never imprison me like you have, making me a useless person for your amusement.”

Xi Yushao grunted, still clutching the soft blue shawl in his hand.

“I didn’t lie to you. I’m just a member of a collateral branch of the opera family. I didn’t lie to you back then. But you always think I’m bad, wicked, dirty, and despicable.”

"I want you to love me, to have all your attention on me instead of them. Why can they have you but I can't?"

Xi Yushao laughed, a desolate laugh, "If I can't get your love, then I'll get your hate. Guess why I'm here? If that idiot Cui Xingzhi hadn't deliberately let him see me, how could he have discovered me?"

"Are you courting death?"

Xi Yushao: "Because I knew you would save him! There are only the two of us here. Ah, if only the two of us were in the world, then you would only see me..."

He pressed down on the floor tiles hidden by his robe, pressing them down forcefully.

As soon as she realized that Xu and the floor tiles beneath him had suddenly disappeared, she tried to use her lightness skill to climb up, but he grabbed her and pulled her down.

In an instant, the gap in the floor tiles closed again, leaving the two of them to fall into the endless darkness.

His breathing amplified in the darkness, his voice filled with an almost frantic obsession and anticipation, "Ah Ling, shall we die together? Right here in this world, just the two of us, and no one will disturb us."

"Have pity on me, don't leave me all alone and miserable. Let us be together through life and death, entangled forever."

"Insolence!" She shouldn't have listened to his nonsense. She should have just killed him with one sword and ended it all.

With a "plop," the sound of wind and water mingled together.

How come she didn't know that the Mountain and Sea Academy had this secret room? Oh no, why is it another lake fall?

Sui Zhixu kicked away Xi Yushao, who was trying to cling to her. What a joke! According to her plan, at this very moment, the Emperor and his family, along with her parents, should have arrived at the Shanhai Academy to confront the aristocratic families head-on, thus revealing the aristocratic families' military strength to the Emperor.

They had no reason not to contribute.

She meticulously planned and deduced the timing of the game over half a month to ensure that the two events were perfectly synchronized. How could she leave her life here?

With a splash, she swam towards the shore. Suddenly, a melodious and ethereal zither tune filled the small, dark space. She reached the shore and met Xi Yushao's eyes.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Surprised?" Xi Yushao reached out his hand to her, though Xu did not smell any blood on him.

"It's me."

As you get closer, you can see more clearly the patterns engraved on the shore, which extend to the feet of Xi Yushao.

"It's amazing that I was able to get here after giving up another body. It seems that He Miao's method really works."

"Impossible! You should have died in your past life too." Sui Zhixu wiped the water off his face and jumped ashore.

The two swords rang out in the lake, then burst out of the water and returned to Sui Zhixu's hands.

Xi Yushao smiled faintly, "Of course, after all, Puyang Kai is deeply in love with you, so he won't give me any breathing room. But it's very simple, just choose a time when I'm still alive."

He clapped his hands, and the candlelight around them lit up, illuminating the entire room. She could then clearly see that the banks of the central circular pool were surrounded by concentric patterns, resembling some kind of array.

"My wife, you can't escape, and you can't kill me."

In the enclosed space, only Sui Zhixu and Xi Yushao were present. The candlelight crackled, and the reflection of the flickering candlelight shimmered in the calm pond.

There is no way out.

Xu noticed that when Xi Yushao appeared, there was a brief melody on the zither...

She thrust her sword into Xi Yushao's chest, and instantly the array beneath her feet radiated a scorching heat, while the sound of the zither echoed through the space once more.

It is a requiem.

The books of Yueshan record that there is a Taoist cultivation method called the "Nine Revolutions Resurrection Technique," which is said to have been personally transmitted by Laozi. Yueshan's grandmaster used this technique to play a resurrection melody to calm the mind and find the soul.

Xi Yushao reappeared unharmed in front of Sui Zhixu, saying, "I told you you can't kill me."

Don't be fooled by him; his current state clearly indicates he's not a normal mortal.

The Resurrection Song is merely a search for lost souls, and it is only because He Miao practiced forbidden arts that he has become so strange.

But the underlying principles are the same.

"Of course I can go out, no need for you to worry. Those who deserve to die should just die."